Main menu

Post navigation

Author Interview – Valerie J. Brooks

What compelled you to tell the story/stories in your most recent book?I had no idea that I would write noir. I loved film noir and had taken a college course to study the form. But on a 2015 trip to Paris with my husband, during Christmas and New Years, the area around the 15th arrondissement caught my imagination. It was a month after the Bataclan terrorist attacks, and ten thousand soldiers were on Paris streets. Some of the soldiers were so young, they had pimples. Homeless Muslim women prostrated themselves on the cold cement of the Champs-Elysées, holding out begging bowls, while the avenue’s trees twinkled with tiny clear lights. The juxtapositions were everywhere. As I do on most of trips, I kept receipts, brochures, menus. I took photos of every place I went, especially of small details. I wrote in a journal. Back home in Oregon, I dug up a story I’d written many years before about an anniversary weekend Dan and I spent in Portland, Oregon. I’d fictionalized it a bit to create a noir story for a travel magazine that was never published. I guess in my personal zeitgeist, I was drawn to the dark. Hell, I’d grown up in New England with ghosts, the gothic, and secrets. Everyone hid behind a veil of perception.

What obstacles did you encounter while writing the book?I don’t remember encountering any obstacles. I’m sure I did, but I loved writing the stories. Maybe that was my obstacle—writing a novel as three separate stories that were linked. After publishing them in succession as e-books, I had to market them individually, too, and that was so much work! I don’t regret doing it this way. When the three were complete, I laced them together, and voila! A noir novel.

How has writing your most recent book changed or added value to your life?I found my voice. Noir comes naturally to me. Noir also reflects the dark times we live in, and I was able to slip in some of my politics. In fact, I’ve renamed this generation of noir. In the 40-50s it was called simply noir. In the 60s-90s, neo-noir. This new noir I call femmes noir. In the older noir, women were either hungry, man-eating females or needy victims. I turned that trope on its head—without making the woman psychotic or sociopathic. I want my women to be like the women I know—strong, gutsy, intelligent, and playing on the right side, although they have lots of baggage caused from bad choices and societal influences. That sends them down the noir sink hole. The women also do things I’d never do. Like murder. It’s fiction. What can I say? They are badasses, and I cheer for them.

Did you self-publish or did you go the traditional route? What was that process like?I’ve been the traditional publishing route for over twenty years. Three literary novels, three fabulous, hard-working NYC agents. Nada. I came damn close, one time being told they already had a novel like mine, which of course they didn’t. I know the one they were comparing my novel to, and I laughed. But after that long time of schlepping the manuscript, sometimes not even getting the decency of a form letter, I said, “Not this time.” So I researched the indie publishing route. It’s not easy. Steep learning curves, lots of time spent comparing, making mistakes, begging for help. But I knew I could do it. Now for the first time, I have a paperback novel, and I’m so proud of it.

Are you friends with other writers? If so, how do they influence your writing?Oh, gads, yes! I can’t tell you how many of my friends are writers—or artists, musicians, creative folk. I’m totally in my element. My best friend, Jan Eliot, is a cartoonist. I’ve been on the board of Eugene Ballet and Oregon Writers Colony. I co-founded the Willamette Writers Speakers Series. I was an advisor for Artists in Schools. I market a poet. I’ve taught workshops on writing and the writing life. I have a writing group that’s met for almost twenty years. I’ve been to five artists residencies where I’ve made writer friends. Other writers are the only people who truly understand us, and we raise each other up. I’m rich with writer friends.

Do you maintain a regular writing practice? If so, what does it look like?No. It’s the most irregular thing I do. I’ve tried, but sometimes, I’m just floating around, taking in the world, listening to radio, like a squirrel stashing nuts; it’s all there for consuming when I need it. When I do write, I write like crazy.

How many other books or stories do you have in progress right now?I have the second femmes-noir in the Angeline Porter Series in the works, tentatively titled Tainted 2 Times, plus I’ve been working on a memoir about my early years in the wild rural west of Oregon titled Vida Flats.

Do you view writing as a spiritual practice?Both writing and dancing are spiritual practices for me. I can’t explain it, but I find both for me are like meditation. When I write at Colonyhouse in Rockaway Beach for a week (Oregon Writers Colony’s members’ residency), I dance on the beach, I immerse in my writing, each a way to reach a different plane, a higher level of awareness and soul-searching.

What would your life look like if you didn’t write?I have no idea. I can’t imagine my life without writing or creating art or finding a passion in some creative outlet. My mom kept a scrap of paper of when I was four or five where I did a crayon drawing of the neighbor’s house. When I was ten or eleven, I set up my brother’s plastic cowboys and Indians in the backyard with teepees I made. I had a story in my head then got down on the ground and took photographs of the tableau. In high school, I sold paintings in a gallery show, performed in the school’s theater productions, was art editor of the yearbook, and wrote for the school newspaper. In college I was art editor then editor of the literary arts magazine. After I arrived in Oregon, I sold work at the Saturday Market and did art for the local newspaper. I can’t imagine my life without some form of creativity. It just wouldn’t happen.

Why do you write?Because I have to.

You can read more about Val’s new novel Revenge in 3 Parts and her blog at http://www.valeriejbrooks.com. Order it on all platforms and buy in indie stores.